The RSGB Contest Committee is holding an Eclipse QSO Party in cooperation with the Propagation Studies Committee during the morning from 0800-11:30 UTC on the 20th. The aim is to find out if and how the partial solar eclipse will affect propagation on the lower HF bands, particularly 160m, 80m and 40m.

Please note that this is not a contest, but some of the RSGB Contest Committee software and web facilities will be used to collect and display activity reports. All available radio amateurs are requested to participate -- this is an opportunity to assist in the research of the Propagation Studies Committee, and to to contribute to our knowledge of propagation and the ionosphere.

Contact information: Contest Committee, Propagation Studies Committee

This is a great opportunity to try some simple experiments to see how the sun’s ultra violet output affects our ionosphere and how some radio waves are propagated.

On the morning of Friday March 20th 2015 the D layer above the UK may not be as strong due to the eclipse, and you may be able to hear stations on the lower bands – 1.8 MHz, 3.5 MHz and perhaps 7 MHz that would otherwise be inaudible during the day.

For example, if you listen for a medium wave radio station that is more than 250-300 miles away during the day you may not hear it – it is too far away for its ground wave signal to reach us, and any sky wave signal is absorbed by the D layer of the ionosphere. But at night its sky wave signals are not absorbed because there is no D layer, and they are free to be reflected back to earth from the higher E/F layers.

This is why you can hear distant medium wave stations on a radio at night, but they aren’t there during the day. You get a similar effect on Top Band, and to a lesser extent 80m/40m.

The details of the experiments for amateurs are now available and you can find out more at the RSGB Radio Propagation Questions forum

PSC has also devised a simple experiment for schools to undertake using portable medium wave radios. A flyer about the experiment is available on the forum above or at www.g0kya.blogspot.com.

The information we gather will also be shared with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell.